Out of Time
by Pumpkin Grenade
Summary: (AU) Set in 2045, where brother and sister Hector & May Parker roam the streets of NYC as White Tiger and Spider-Girl, a strange visitor arrives seemingly from another time period. Dazed and confused, the two heroes try to catch up the visitor to everything that's happened in the time that he was gone. All the while, a threat from a distant dimension arrives to hunt the visitor.
1. Prologue - Something Landed

**Out of Time**

**Disclaimer**: Never have I ever owned a Marvel title. This is all imaginative.

* * *

_**Prologue: Something Landed**_

* * *

_November 5, 2045, 00:46HRS_

_On the banks of the Hudson River, near Manhattan, _

_On-board the __**Liberator**__ Alpha-Class Helicarrier._

A SHIELD specialist was presiding over his workstation operating the long-range scanner to detect any anomalies in space. He had just brewed himself some coffee in the break room when he returned to his desk to check up on the scanner. Not surprising, nothing had changed. He sipped on his coffee as he shifted through intel reports from his division on his laptop.

Nothing really out of the ordinary outside of various alien fleets passing through the solar system. Their close cooperation with SWORD kept them in constant contact with any extraterrestrial entities. After reading those, he looked through the SHIELD-wide memo that Director Coulson forwarded regarding the SHIELD Ball that was to be held at the Triskelion in Washington D.C. to commemorate the agency's dedication to humanity.

"Anything on the scanner, Carpenter?" his supervisor walked by his desk and asked in passing.

"Nothing, ma'am. Just the regular pings from the satellites."

"Alright. Well, the boys over in the communications division need someone who knows how to fix a quantum relay. That's in your area of expertise, right?"

"They broke it again? Yes, ma'am, I'll head down there in a bit."

"Thank you."

As he finished up his coffee, he suddenly heard pings coming through the scanner. Confused, he opened it up to see a strange object begin to form just beyond the Earth's atmosphere. It swirled around with a dark center and a light blue outline, much like the event horizon of a black hole. Confused, he cleared up the scanner, only to confirm that it was indeed happening.

"Uh, ma'am, I think you should come look at this!" he called out.

His supervisor marched over to look at the scanner, only widening her eyes as she saw it appear. She quickly ran out of the room and began calling the captain of the ship to contact SWORD to assess what was going on at the edge of the atmosphere.

Carpenter continued to watch the black hole appear when suddenly something violently shot out from the center, spiraling into the atmosphere. And just as quick as it appeared, the black hole vanished instantaneously like a phantom.

"Ma'am, the black hole disappeared! It ejected a foreign object into the atmosphere!"

She ran back.

"What do you mean it disappeared?! What foreign object?"

Suddenly, the captain appeared alongside a small detail of agents. The supervisor and Carpenter quickly stood at attention while the gruff captain simply watched the monitor without the need for an explanation.

"Do we have a heading to where that object is heading towards?" he harshly asked the specialist.

"Yes, sir, its trajectory is… let me see… ah, outside the city, sir! At Jamaica Bay!"

"Right," the captain turned to one of his men, "Get the helmsman to set a course for Jamaica Bay. I want a team prepped and ready to set foot down there to assess what the hell is landing. Get the hazmat unit up to speed and call the local authorities to quarantine the area. Someone get Director Coulson on the line!"

* * *

_Several minutes later, _

_On the edges of Jamaica Bay… _

The object survived entry into the atmosphere, crashing at several hundred miles into the soft sand within the bay. Helicopters appeared from the horizon to begin surveying the area with their bright spotlights shining over the entire darkened area. While SHIELD personnel began to show up on-site ahead of the _Liberator_'s arrival over the airspace, something began to drift ashore.

A strange humanoid figure, heavily armored in some sort of suit that resembled something like the Iron Man armor from ages back. The armor was black and silver, with a white mask-plate that covered the figure's face. It was heavily beaten and bruised, as though it had been worn in some sort of battle. Parts of it had been charred away.

Suddenly, the AI that powered the suit temporarily came online and sparked the wearer to life before shutting off as the last of its power cells had been depleted.

The man slowly opened his eyes, only able to see through the inlets of the mask, realizing he was laying down on his stomach against the sandbar. He coughed out water that had seeped into the armor and reached for his back. There was a sheath that was built-into the back of his armor, but his heart fell when he realized that the sword that he assumed would be there was missing.

His muscles calmly shook as he struggled to get up on his feet. Finally, being able to grip himself onto the grain of the sand, he picked himself up and started slowly walking towards the edge of the forest.

"W-What happened?" he groggily asked himself.

Just then, a giant mass appeared in the sky overhead. He recognized it as a helicarrier. But, he was confused by the look of it.

"But… the war? What…"

Suddenly, he sensed movement coming towards him. Large teams of armed troops coming towards him. No doubt his entrance must've alerted them. He didn't want to make himself known. But he was running out of room. The teams were coming right towards him from the edge of the forest.

He backed away slowly towards the sandbar where he drifted on. He could see the lights from the flashlights of these men coming towards him.

"I think I see something!" one of them called out.

The figure slowly raised his hands up into the air as they approached him.

"Let's hope this suit still does as it's intended," he murmured.

"That! What is that!?" one of the troops cried as the lights focused on the figure.

But, just as they did so, the figure disappeared into thin air. Vanished without a trace. The troops closed in on the figure's position but saw nothing. Seconds later, one of them pointed out footprints on the sand leading away into the forest.

Whatever had landed slipped out from right underneath their noses.

* * *

_Meanwhile, inside the city…_

Web-slinging between the skyscrapers, a sleek, black-and-red suited feminine figure leaped through the New York horizon. Long blackish-brown hair flowed behind her as she landed on her feet on-top of a roof top. She pressed her finger against her earpiece.

"Hector, I'm in position," she silently affirmed.

"Got it, May," he answered.

She looked down below to see a police scene as several cruisers were posted outside one of the major banks in Midtown. The alarms inside the bank were going off, with a strange maniacal cackle going off inside. She knew who the perp was. It was becoming annoying how frequent it was to catch him.

"Come out with your hands up!" an officer ordered over a megaphone, "We will not hesitate to use deadly force if you do not cooperate!"

Then, the front doors to the bank exploded in a giant fire, as a green-and-purple suited figure with a flaming pumpkin head came flying out on a black glider, cackling as he threw bombs at the police. He had a case full of credits that he had just stolen connected to his glider.

"NY's finest?! I don't think so!" he cackled.

Suddenly, he was stopped as he nearly flew into a giant spider-web dead in his tracks.

"Ha! Can't stop me so easily, **Spider-Girl**!"

May came running out into view, shooting several strings of web at the glided fool.

"Halloween ended last week, **Jack**! What are you still doing trick-or-treating?" she coolly asked, sprouting out webbing to try and keep him off balance.

"Argh! I have no time to explain it to simpletons like you! Out of my way!"

Jack O'Lantern supercharged his glider to try and escape, but May shot off a string that stayed glued to the rear of his glider, pulling her along for the ride.

"Give it up, Jack! There's no way your lawyer is going to bust you out of this one!"

"Insolent child! Don't you know what's at stake here?!"

"Yeah, you're going to go rotten like all the other carved pumpkins on my porch. Yeah, yeah. Give it a rest already."

He threw some bombs back towards her way only for her to swiftly dodge them while still being pulled by the glider.

Running out of options, he sped towards the waterfront to try and drop her off there.

"You're going to regret coming all the way out here, Jack!" she playfully taunted, "Stop now and we'll tell the judge to cut five years off your life sentence!"

As they began flying over the water, Jack began a sharp descent.

"Time to wash the spider out!"

She quickly pulled herself up to avoid dipping into the water, flying up towards him and shooting off a string of web to pull him off his glider. She shot another one off to a nearby building and swung him back towards the street. Right before so, another figure appeared, dressed in all white and sharply punching him across his helmet.

Jack O'Lantern was knocked backwards several feet, falling right into the Hudson River. Spider-Girl jumped down and shot off several webs into the water to pull him up out of it before he could drown. The water extinguished the flame around his helmet and by the time they pulled him out, he didn't resist.

She webbed him up against a light post and ripped the mask off his head, revealing the dark-haired and sharp-looking true identity of the supervillain.

"If you do get out of prison, you should find a new line of work, Macendale," she taunted him, "Try opening up a seasonal costume shop for Halloween or something."

He angrily growled at her as she jumped up and web-swung herself up onto a nearby rooftop. The police showed up shortly afterwards and cut him down to place him into custody. A river patrol unit picked up his glider as well.

She watched with pride as they escorted him away. She sensed the figure that helped her approach nearby, standing next to her to watch the arrest. She looked over at him, the ever-elusive **White Tiger**, with the Jade Tiger Amulet glowing brightly on his chest.

"Thanks for letting me do that one, Hector."

"Anytime," he warmly responded, "Nice touch with grabbing ahold of the glider like that, by the way."

"Yeah, well, dad used to do the same against the **Green Goblin** back in his day. Jack O'Lantern didn't really perfect the glider design in a way that prevents me from attaching a web string on it, eh?"

"I suppose so," he chuckled.

Then, she received a call on her earpiece.

"Hold on, Hector, I'm getting a call."

"It better not be Uncle Nova again. I think he's still trying to get us to spend Thanksgiving with him on the other side of the galaxy."

"Hello? This is Spider-Girl."

"Parker, this is Director Coulson from SHIELD."

"Oh, hey Phil, what's going on?"

"I've been better. You know I hate asking for favors from you two, but you're the only affiliates we have in the area to assess the situation that's just occurred."

"Whoa, whoa, slow your horses there, Phil. What 'situation'?"

"Something's landed over in Jamaica Bay, some ways from the city. I can't discuss too much of it over the audio waves, but I'm taking a jet up there as we speak. If you and your brother can rendezvous with the captain of the _Liberator_ over in Jamaica Bay. Please assist him with whatever he asks of you."

"Oh, come on, Phil, really? Nobody else can do this?"

"Nobody that I trust. Look, I'm sorry, I know you two don't work for us, but I'd like some hero oversight on this before it gets out of hand. We don't know what we're dealing with quite yet. Can you please do this? As a favor for me?"

She sighed.

"Fine, but you owe us for this. We'll be over there soon."

She promptly hung up.

"Well, I guess that means I won't be able to see my girlfriend tonight, huh?" Hector asked.

"Yep, SHIELD came knocking."

"You should've just ignored it."

"Nah. Think of it this way. We do this and we scored a favor with the Director of SHIELD. That goes a long way you know."

The two siblings departed the city and made their way towards Jamaica Bay, which was already getting media coverage over whatever SHIELD was doing in the vicinity.


	2. The Hunted

_**The Hunted**_

* * *

_03:07 HRS_

_Somewhere in Long Island…_

SHIELD teams were hot on the trail of the unknown entity that landed on Earth. Trying to cause as little panic to the public as possible, Director Coulson issued out a statement to the inquisitive press that this was just a training exercise to evaluate SHIELD's responsiveness to new threats that may arise. However, this didn't stop the news outlet from reporting on the event.

On the ground, a specialized SHIELD unit was following the energy signature left behind by their visitor. They were picking up a strange invisible cosmic energy trail that was being collected and sent to SWORD for an analysis as to where this visitor originated from across the galaxy. Regardless of the result, their mission was to neutralize this entity by whatever means necessary and to bring it in.

The mysterious entity ran as fast as he could across the forest, burdened only by the heavy material of the suit he wore. He could sense the patrols behind him, accompanied by dogs and other tech to track him down. He knew he needed to evade capture long enough to figure out what was going on and where he was.

He reached the edge of a suburban area where highways and buildings could be seen in the distance. He took a moment to crouch down next to a dumpster on the side of a power station and take a moment to breathe. It had felt like forever since he last used his lungs to this capacity.

"**Oracle**. Oracle, are you there?" he asked, tapping on his chest to try and activate the suit's AI.

No response.

He glanced down at his arms and slowly began tensing the muscles of his forearms. Slowly, sparks began to jump from his fingertips as he began charging up an electrical power ability. It grew stronger and stronger as he pulsated it against the power unit of the suit. He sustained it long enough to temporarily activate it.

"Oracle?"

"D-D-D-Damage sustained. Life s-s-support systems c-c-c-c-critical," the distorted voice of a woman spoke through the speakers in his helmet.

"I know that. Where are we? Is this a distant dimension or something?"

"P-present location: Earth."

"That's… that's impossible," the entity rejected the answer, "I was… I was just here and… Wait, the portal! That's where we left last… Maybe we… argh!"

A sharp pain grazed his left side, followed by several shots of laser fire from the woods nearby. The patrols had found him.

"There he is!" one of them called out.

The entity leaped out from cover and began running towards the town. He continuously tried to vanish in the same fashion that he did before, but the suit was refusing to stay intangible.

"Suit adaptive sys-sys-system has been dis-dis-disabled," Oracle reported.

"**Now** you tell me!?"

He ran into the street, nearly being hit by a vehicle. Then another. As he got onto the sidewalk, he could hear a helicopter overhead approaching from afar. They must've signaled his location to the rest of his hunters.

He grunted in pain as two more laser shots burned right through the armor and into the back of his right thigh and right arm. Ignoring the pain, he kept running, using the suit's heavily damaged propulsion systems to jump forward to gain some ground.

As he turned a street corner, nearly running into a night-time bicyclist, he noticed that the pain wasn't dissipating like he had expected it to.

"What the hell?! Why am I not regenerating?!"

"Unknown."

"Argh, thank you, Oracle!" he irritably responded.

He was beginning to grow tired as his injuries began to debilitate him. The patrols were closing in, with additional agents showing up via transports inside the town. With options running out, he slipped into a back alleyway and into the backroom of what appeared to be a closed laundromat.

"I need… I need you to get the suit off of me, Oracle," he gasped for breath, "The armor won't allow me to disappear. I can't… I can't let them take me. Not until I figure out what's going on."

"Is this where we d-d-depart?"

"Yes."

"Very w-well."

"Thank you," he finally told her.

"F-F-For what?"

"For keeping me company in the void."

Without another word, he pulled the clamps on the side of his leg that manually dismantled the suit. He quickly got out of it before it collapsed to the ground in a pile of damaged parts. Once the patrols closed in, he vanished into thin air, disappearing out of view completely and leaving the agents with only the broken armor on the floor.

The agents carefully approached it while keeping their eyes open for any other movement inside the laundromat.

"Get the captain on a transmission," the lead agent ordered, "Report that we lost the entity, but that we've found something."

* * *

_About thirty minutes later, on the other side of the town…_

Spider-Girl and White Tiger arrived to the scene just as SHIELD was wrapping up their "training event" in the area. Several journalists were out and about trying to catch a scoop of what had just occurred, but SHIELD personnel were keeping their lips tight on the whole situation. May and Hector were able to enter the cordoned-off area without any problems and reported directly to the field commander there.

"Hey there," May greeted the commander, "We were sent by Director Coulson. You guys have some sort of problem?"

"Hello," the stolid commander greeted in passing as he was looking over a report on a holopad, "Yes, we were told that you were arriving. But, unfortunately we don't need your help anymore. We've contained the situation."

"Doesn't look like it," Hector casually pointed out, "What was the 'situation' anyway?"

"I'm not at liberty to discuss it. We appreciate the help, but it's no longer required."

"So, wait, we came all the way out here from Manhattan just to be told 'thanks, but no thanks'?!" May sharply asked, "What the hell, man?"

The commander simply shrugged.

"The captain has suspended our operations here until further notice."

"Yeah, alright," Hector interrupted, "Well, we're going home. You can tell your captain that _we're not_ coming to help if you call back. What a waste of time."

White Tiger angrily marched off, prompting his sister to follow close with.

"Come on, Tiger, we can still see what happened here!" she pleaded with him.

"You heard the man, sis. Besides, I'm tired. I want to go to bed."

"No, _you_ just want to go back to your girly friend! Come on, this could be big!"

"Just for us to stay up another three hours? No thanks. We still have work in the morning, you know."

She sighed in defeat.

"Alright, alright. Fine."

As the two of them walked away, she spotted a convenience store that was still open a few blocks away.

"Can we _at least_ go get some snacks for the road? I'm hungry!" May pleaded.

"Oh, alright. But, let's make it quick."

* * *

_Inside the convenience store…_

"That'll be forty credits," the young attendant rang up.

Hector was mortified at the number of sandwiches and snacks May had placed on the counter, along with several bottles of water and hydration juices.

"Don't judge!" she scolded him, "You know how many calories we burn in a day?!"

"I'm aware."

"Exactly! Let a girl eat!"

"Not judging," he chuckled.

Suddenly, the backdoor to the store slammed open. Both her and Hector glanced over just in time to see a figure appear into view before their very eyes.

Clad in some sort of black tactical suit, he raised a pistol at them with his right hand, while holding his bleeding side with his left. His face was concealed by a whitish mask of some sort, splotched with red spots that was presumably blood. A black cloak covered his head and draped halfway down his back.

"Don't move," he groggily warned them, "I need... I need medicine."

The store attendant quickly ducked underneath the counter, screaming in a panic.

"Uh, you sure you want to do this, pal?" Hector taunted, "The whole disappearing trick is nice, but I know quite a few people who can do the same. It's _not_ that special. Now, put down the gun before you get hurt."

"Wait," the figure's voice softened as he began to recognize them, "S-Spider-Man? White Tiger?"

"**Spider-Man**?" May repeated, "Spider-Man is… was… our father. I'm Spider-Girl. This is my brother, White Tiger."

"_Stop_ talking to him," Hector growled, "Whatever SHIELD's doing in the area, **he **must be connected to it."

"You're… brother and sister…? Then, that would mean…"

"I'm done talking," Hector cut him short and pounced forward to cut the gun away from the man's hand.

He swiftly dashed his claws at the man's chest, slicing him deep and causing him to fall back in pain. The wounds began to bleed. He tried to get up, but Hector delivered a debilitating kick to his stomach that knocked the air out of him.

"Brother, stop it!" May shouted.

She shot a string of web at him and pulled him back before he could do more damage. But, by then, the man was already knocked out cold.

"Look what you did," she sighed.

"We need to take him to SHIELD. He's probably the whole reason they called us up to begin with."

"After wasting our time? I don't think so."

She approached him and cautiously studied him.

"He doesn't look like he's from around here," she noted.

"What was your first clue, sis? Look at him, he looks like a terrorist!"

She crouched down and checked his pulse.

"Well, you didn't kill him."

"Of course, I didn't. Now come on, let's turn him in and go home."

She thought about it for a moment.

"Well?"

"I think we should take him with us, Tiger."

"Wait, what?! Have you lost your mind?!"

"We _don't _know that he's what SHIELD's after. He said he needed medicine!" she pleaded.

"We can't provide him that."

"We have to try."

After paying the frightened convenience store attendant, Hector and May hauled the man's body out. They were extra careful trekking towards the back of the store to not alert SHIELD while their presence was still so high in the area.

"How are we going to get him back to Manhattan?" Hector then inquired, "You can't carry him on your back, you know."

"Who do we know that lives in Long Island that can give us a lift?"

"Ugh, hold on."

Hector reached into his utility belt and pulled out his holo-phone and flipped through his contacts. While he did so, May looked over at the man and studied his armor. There was this strange white insignia printed on his bulletproof vest. The symbol looked like a hooded face with some lettering beneath it. It looked like it started with either an S or a 5 and the second letter was too faded to identify.

"Who are you?" she quietly asked the man.

"I've got something," her brother finally noted, "You remember that family friend? Felicia Hardy?"

"Yeah?"

"Her daughter lives some ways from here. Maybe we can get her to give us a lift?"

"Didn't you two date?!" May questioned.

"No. I don't think so, anyway."


	3. The Hunter

_**The Hunter**_

* * *

_05:07HRS..._

_Next to a gas station on the edge of the highway…_

After waiting for what seemed an eternity, May and Hector saw a black luxury sports car pull up to the corner of the gas station parking lot that they had instructed Felicia Hardy's daughter, **Kat**, to park at. Hector glanced over at May and audibly sighed. She couldn't help but giggle.

The beautiful and curvy Kat opened her car door, stepped out, and glanced over at him.

"Hey, Kat. I'm glad you could make it out here at such short notice," Hector calmly greeted.

"Uh-huh," she firmly answered, "You can't return my calls but you're quick to call me when you need something. Okay."

"I was waiting for that. Look, we don't have time to talk about that right now. We've got something to deal with."

"Hey Kat!" May happily greeted.

"Hi."

"Thanks for coming out here so soon!"

"Sure. So, what's so important that you need _my_ help?"

May walked around the corner of a dumpster and dragged out their tactically suited guest from behind it. Kat's eyes widened when she saw that.

"You dragged me out of bed to help you bury a body?"

"No, he's still alive!" Hector quickly pointed out, "We just needed a ride back to Manhattan."

"You couldn't tell me that over the phone?"

"We think SHIELD is looking for him," May pointed out, "We don't want to turn him in just yet!"

"I thought you two were the good guys. That guy looks like a bad guy to me."

"Can you help us or not?" Hector forced the question.

"Sure. But he's not laying down on the leather seats. Put him in the trunk."

She clicked over to the back of her car and opened up the hatch back. Hector picked up the mysterious stranger and rested him in the back. Kat quickly closed it and walked over to the driver's seat. She motioned for Hector and May to get in the car as well. Hector reluctantly sat shotgun next to Kat while May sat in the back passenger seat.

"Thanks, Kat. We owe you one!" May exclaimed once they were in the car.

She revved up the car and pulled out of the gas station lot, roaring down the highway towards Manhattan. She swerved between both cars and lanes to get ahead.

"Can't you slow down? You _want _us to get pulled over?" Hector scolded.

"We'll be fine."

* * *

_Meanwhile, at the landing site at Jamaica Bay…_

After Director Coulson briefed the Security Council about the updates on the crash landing, he spoke with the Director of SWORD and forwarded them the information collected from the entity that landed to see where he originated from. After all that was said and done, he visited the site once SHIELD ensured it was clear of any hazardous residue or radiation.

He walked alongside Captain Fawkes of the _Liberator_ on the sandbar where the entity had washed up on.

"And you said we have no idea where this being could be?" Coulson sternly asked.

"No, sir. Our teams closed in on him, but he left nothing but that armor behind."

The director pulled out his personal holopad to review the pictures they took of the armor. He felt like he had seen it before somewhere in time. It was definitely an Iron Man suit of some kind, though. But, the model appeared as though it was made before the War.

"Send this information to Morgan Stark and see if she knows anything about it," he then advised the captain.

"Will do, sir. But, how did it end up falling out of a black hole?"

"I don't know. That's the real mystery here. Whoever this visitor is, he's been here before. If he's been here before, why did he come back now? And, why did he run from us?"

Before the captain made his departure, Coulson asked another question.

"Did Spider-Girl and White Tiger make contact with you all last night?"

"One of my field commanders told me they did, but that had no leads on where our entity had gone, he elected not to bring them aboard."

"What?" the director irritably asked, "Why not? I asked you to recruit their assistance, captain."

"I'll speak with him."

"You do that. In the meantime, I have to call them now to apologize for wasting their time," the director sighed, "You don't do that to family, captain. Those two are family to the SHIELD agency."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

_A little while later, _

_A few miles east of Jamaica Bay…_

On the forested edges of Long Island, a portal violently ripped open. Much like the black hole that occurred earlier that day, this too brought forth a visitor. From the dark void beyond the portal, a figure marched forward, wielding some type of alien weapon and clad in a black nightmarish armor that made the figure seem like some type of deathly knight. His head was covered by a helmet in the shape of a skull.

As the portal closed up behind him, the figure took a moment to examine the area and analyze it. He crouched down and slid his gauntleted right hand across the soil and rubbed his thumb and index finger to study the texture of the earth. He stood back up and activated a holographic tool on his left forearm, displaying a radar map that seemed to chronologically detect events in the area. After analyzing the population nearby, he opened up a transmissions link.

"Control, I've made it to the requested universe," he darkly reported, "Earth-819, 29 planetary cycles after the the Revenants fought. Sending request to identify my target."

"One moment, **Jaeger**."

He continued to study his environment, standing stolidly with his weapon at the ready.

"Jaeger."

"Yes, Control."

"We are sending you the target's information now."

He pulled up the information on his holo-tool, retrieving the details.

"He arrived last night?"

"That's correct. There was an anomaly in the time vortex that he was pulled into."

"I see," he affirmed.

"The Conqueror has approved any collateral damage on this mission. Your priority is the target."

"Acknowledged."

He closed the connection and marched into the woods towards a nearby town.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading if you've gotten this far. :-)


	4. Wake Up

"_**Wake Up"**_

* * *

_Later that morning..._

_At a high-rise apartment in Soho…_

They made it to their apartment building, where May was able to slip the masked man into their high-rise apartment by webbing a harness to his body and pulling him up while quickly scaling the side of the building. Hector and Kat watched her do so before she shoved him into the window at the very top. He turned to Kat afterwards.

She crossed her arms to signal her disappointment with him.

"Thanks for helping us out," he simply told her, "I don't know what my sister plans to do with him, but…"

She sighed.

"Yeah. You're welcome."

She kept piercing him with a cold stare from her bright green eyes.

"Listen, I've got a lot going on right now," he calmly told her, "I don't have time to deal with…"

"With me? Sure. I get it."

"Jesus Christ, Kat, I caught you trying to steal _so many times _around the city. I can't be involved in that."

"You sure didn't mind what we would _do_ after you caught me," she coldly added, "Look, if you don't want to continue what we've had, fine. But, don't come around and try to ask for favors pretending like we didn't have something."

"Kat…"

"Goodbye, Parker."

Without another word, she ended the conversation and walked away, back into her car, and sped off. He sighed and shook his head, unbelieving of the problems he's run into.

* * *

_Meanwhile…_

_On-board the __**Liberator**__…_

Director Coulson studied the damaged Iron Man suit from behind a glass pane while analysts took detailed notes of it inside a controlled room. They took samples of the metal, collected any biological traces they could from the model, and made attempts to reactivate the suit's AI, but to no avail. He couldn't help but continue to feel like he had seen the suit before somewhere in time. Of course, he had seen virtually every Iron Man suit Tony Stark wore during his glory days and even during **The War**, but this one was different. This one stood out from the rest.

"Director, there's a call for you at the bridge," one of his aides informed him, breaking his focus.

At the bridge, a holographic figure appeared at the command terminal. It was a prestigious looking woman with long brownish-red hair and brown eyes. She had a familiar look of determination and confidence that was mirrored from her father.

"Ms. Stark, I apologize for reaching out to you at such short notice," Coulson politely greeted her.

"Not at all, director. You caught me at a good time before my flight. How can I help?"

"I'll be brief so to not delay your trip. But, I assume you heard about the foreign object that entered the planet's atmosphere last night?"

"I read a report about it, but I was under the assumption that it was a small asteroid."

"Negative. It was something else. An entity landed on Earth last night. This entity that the analysts are calling **The Visitor **entered our atmosphere after being ejected from a small black hole near the moon. The black hole disappeared as quickly as it formed."

"So, are we dealing with an extraterrestrial visitor then? Have you informed SWORD about this?"

"We did. So far, our alien counterparts are denying any responsibility for the visitor's entry. I'm inclined to believe them. You see, The Visitor had on a very specific type of armor," he told her.

"What do you mean?"

Coulson pulled up the specifications the analysts in the control room collected and sent it to her. She was able to pull it up holographically and manipulate the details of the armor. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Do you recognize it?" he eagerly asked her.

"I see that it's one of my father's designs for the Iron Man suit. It looks modeled after the Mark XXVII and some other design. You said The Visitor was wearing _this?"_

"Yes, ma'am."

"This is so weird," she noted as she continued to manipulate the layout of the suit, "Very few of my father's suits were space worthy and those came only _after _The War. The different components of _this _suit would lead me to believe that it was built before or _during _The War."

"Is there anything you can tell us about it? Perhaps your father had a list of suits he made that this matches up to?"

She shook her head.

"If this was made during The War, then those suits were unmarked. Father didn't record those because he didn't have the ability to. But what I _can _tell you is that he didn't make this armor for himself. He made it for _someone else_."

"How did you figure that?"

"See this sheath on the back of the armor? That was specifically purposed for someone who wielded some type of sword. That's not any makeshift modification, that's something father intentionally placed there," she explained.

"So, The Visitor uses a sword of some sort, then."

"For all we know, The Visitor could've stolen this armor too, director. Father wasn't able to account for half his suits after The War ended. Maybe some being was able to grab ahold of one somehow."

"Perhaps, but even then… I can't shake this feeling that I may have seen this suit somewhere. I just don't know when and where," he remarked.

"I see. Well, if it helps your investigation, I'll save this and research our archives to see what I can dig up. Maybe father had it written the designs for this somewhere."

"That would be of great help. Thank you, Miss Stark."

"Of course."

She smiled with her farewell and her holographic image dissipated out of view.

He pondered what she had reported and tried to figure out who could've been the wearer of the suit. He knew of so many supers and villains that utilized swords, but all of them were on Earth.

While SHIELD continued their search for traces of this entity, the question still remained...

**...who is The Visitor?**

* * *

_Back at the apartment…_

Hector helped May carry the masked man over to one of the workshop tables inside May's laboratory where she worked on her experiments.

Both her and her brother worked hard to build their home together. With the money they'd earned from their inheritance, May was able to create a lab where she worked on improving her webbing formula as well as repair, maintain, and improve her suit's capabilities. Hector usually pawned the specifics of his suit to May while he continuously trained in his dojo-like room in the apartment.

They laid him out on his back and placed his hands at his sides.

"What are you planning on doing with him?" Hector irritably asked.

"What's eating _you_?"

"We went through a lot of trouble to bring him back here and had to call a favor from someone who is basically a criminal. I just want to make sure this was worth the trip."

"Oh, you don't believe that," she teased, "I remember you were head over heels in love with Kat for the longest time ever before you found out she was out being a thief."

"Well, I'm not anymore. That's ancient history. It's also not the point, May. What are you planning to do with him?"

"Can't you see he's hurt?"

"May," he sighed, "This isn't some wounded bird or dog that you pulled off the street that you're trying to rescue. This guy looks and _smells _like trouble! We shouldn't have brought him back."

"Something tells me that we should help him. Isn't that what heroes do? We help people."

"We help _innocent _people, sis."

"What is he guilty of, Hector? For looking like he's up to no good? What would mom think?"

He shook his head.

"Look, I'm not going to argue with you about this. I'm hungry. I'm tired... and I'm late for work now no thanks to you."

"It's not like you enjoy working there anyway," she murmured.

"Hey! It pays the bills around here!" he snapped, "Heal him up, stitch him up, whatever. But then get him out."

With that, he stomped out of her lab and slammed the door shut behind him. She shook her head at the door. She hated when he'd get temperamental like that. It made her feel as though she was disappointing him. But she felt something different about the stranger. She felt like she needed to help him in some way. Maybe she was just being dumb. She hoped she wasn't.

She glanced back at the stranger, seeing that he was visibly breathing.

Who was he? Where did he come from? How did he know her dad? Maybe he was a fan? Spider-Man hasn't been seen in such a long time, though. No way he could've mistaken her for him.

Thinking of this made her look over at a picture frame at her desk. It was a picture of her, her brother, and her parents. They were all smiling at the camera while they were relaxing in Florida. That was years ago. Before she lost them. She wished they were still there.

She walked behind a frosted folding screen to change out of her costume. She pulled off her mask and pulled on a pair of jeans and a black top. She washed her hands at a sink nearby and picked up a kit full of tools and a notepad.

"Alright, let's see if we can't clean you up," she told the unconscious man.

She pulled up an old monitoring system from her cluttered desk and slowly waved it over the man's head. It displayed a virtual image of his skull along with his brain. The device quickly diagnosed that the man suffered a severe concussion, which could explain why he was still out after all these hours.

"Jeez, Hector sure did a number on you, man. I should probably get you to a hospital."

But then the device reported that the brain was slowly repairing itself, eliminating the points damaged by the concussion.

"A healing factor? Wow, you just got a whole lot more interesting now."

She went ahead and took off his tactical vest and cut a line down his shirt to remove it, exposing his bare chest. She was taken a bit back when she saw how heavily scarred it was. There were thick lines of scarred tissue that ran up and around his body like an intricate pattern. What mortified her was his metal bracers.

They were virtually melted onto his forearms.

"Dude, what _are _you?"

She walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a cutting torch and tank and hauled it back over to his table. Sliding a welding mask over her face, she cut on the torch and began to carefully cut through the metal down to the skin. It sent sparks of electricity everywhere as she finished cutting it. It shattered into pieces once she finished cutting through it. The skin underneath looked petrified.

She walked around and did the same to the other bracer, which also shattered into pieces. After throwing away the pieces, she looked at his mask.

Who could be underneath it? Is it someone we know or _knew?_ The white mask covered his whole head and it was aged beyond comparison, turning it into a dirty white color with dried splotches of blood.

Curiosity got the better of her.

She walked to the end where his head rested and slowly slid the mask off. She gasped when she saw his face. The scarred lines of tissue went around his head as well, leaving a ghastly-looking face that once appeared human.

But, she didn't recognize him.

A deep gash ran down his left eye, which worried her that it may have rendered the eye useless. It seemed strange, however, as she would've thought his healing factor would've prevented that.

"Who did this to you?" she lamented.

She threw away the mask.

Suddenly, her holo-tool rang and she quickly picked it up.

"Hello?"

"May? Where are you?" The stern voice of a woman sternly asked.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, ma'am! I forgot I was due at the lab today! I'll be right over there!"

She hung up before she could get scolded any further. She quickly wrote down something on a note and left it at the man's side in the event he woke up. She ran back behind her folding screen and slipped on her lab coat.

Before she left through the door, she took one last look over at the man.

"I'll be right back!" she assured him, before leaving through the door.

* * *

_An hour later…_

The sounds of intense whispering and screams filled up the man's subconscious. He squirmed in his slumber as he relived his intense memories. The face of a beautiful, dark-brown haired woman in a white hood flashed through his mind.

His beloved.

A dark figure tainted the memory. The figure's skull-like mask and bright red glowing eyes chilled him to his core. The figure laughed maniacally as he raised a sword at him for a final blow.

His archnemesis.

Then, the memory faded to the final moments where he was pulled into the void.

He shot up from his unconscious state, breathing heavily. Beads of sweat slid down his face. Once he got his bearings, his eyes zoomed around the room he found himself in. Nervously, he shifted over to where his legs hung off the edge of the table. But, as he did so, he immediately noticed his forearms.

His bracers were gone.

He softly slid his fingers across the dead skin on his forearms. He jumped when sparks streaked as he did so.

Returning his attention to the room, he noticed a picture frame at a desk cluttered with various gadgets. Ignoring his half-naked state, he got to his feet. He noticed that the wound he had at his side had healed up, but it took a lot longer than he was used to.

He walked over to the desk and picked up the frame and studied it. His heart dropped when the realization set in.

"This is… This is Ava and Peter," he said to himself, "… these are their kids? That means… God… H-How long has it been?"

* * *

**Enjoying the story? Let me know. :-) I have a poll on my profile to help me gauge where I am at it. So, if you don't want to leave a review, please let me know how it goes there. Thanks so much. :-D**


	5. The Ghost

_**The Ghost**_

* * *

_Meanwhile, back on Long Island…_

The mysterious **Jaeger **approached what appeared to be a small town from the edges of the forest as the day grew well past midday. He detected several authoritative figures patrol around in search of what he quickly assumed was his target. Knowing now that the area was under such high surveillance, he elected to conceal himself in order to prevent detection.

He spotted one of the patrol cruisers parked at a nearby convenience store. His heat sensor on his visor detected only two individuals inside.

"Perfect."

Readying his weapon, he stalked towards the store.

* * *

_Inside the store..._

"So, you're saying that Spider-Girl and White Tiger took this man in?" a SHIELD agent repeated as he was questioning the attendant.

"Yes, sir. They did. I think they called someone to help take them to Manhattan too, but I'm not sure."

"This is interesting. If that is true, then they're involved in this. Thank you for the information."

Suddenly, the front door to the store dinged open. The agent and attendant glanced over to see the tall and intimidating figure step inside wielding a large weapon of some sort.

"Who the hell are you?" the agent asked, "Halloween ended last week, man. What's with the get-up?"

"**You**, mortal," Jaeger called in a deep and demonic voice as he pointed at him, "I require your skin to disguise myself in this universe."

The agent chuckled.

"Get lost, pal, before you get in a world of hurt."

"As you wish."

Jaeger stomped forward, prompting the agent to withdraw his sidearm and fire off several energy rounds at his chest. His jaw dropped as he watched each round deflect off the brute's front chest plate.

"W-What are you?!"

Jaeger reached the man and grabbed him by his throat, lifting him up and squeezing his throat. The man's flesh seemed to dissipate into a liquid that traveled up the hunter's armor, completely covering him until he took the full physical form of the agent. He had absorbed the agent's body completely, including the suit he had on.

Now disguised as the agent, Jaeger turned to look at the attendant, who was trembling in fear with his hands up.

"I didn't see anything, I swear! Please don't kill me!"

"You, mortal," he called at the attendant, this time in the agent's voice, "You have information I need to find my target."

"W-Who?!"

"The man you were speaking to the deceased agent about. The man you said spoke to this Spider-Girl and White Tiger. This is who the deceased was searching for, correct?"

"Y-Yes, I think so!"

"Where are they headed?" Jaeger demanded.

"To M-Manhattan, I think! I overh-h-heard! Oh god, please don't kill me!"

The attendant was bursting into tears at this point.

"I'm just trying to make enough to get by, please! Please don't!"

Jaeger pulled up the holo-tool on his forearm and looked up a biographic about the attendant. He studied the chronological information from the attendant's past, present…

…and future.

"You are not destined to die this day, mortal," Jaeger informed him, "You will finish paying off your loans in five years and you will meet someone who will change your life for good in three. You will die at the age of 87, having parented four children."

"W-What? R-Really?" the attendant asked.

"Yes. Now, stay still."

Jaeger raised his hand at him, palm-forward, and beamed a bright light at the attendant's eyes. Suddenly, the attendant blinked his eyes twice and looked up at the disguised Jaeger.

"W-Where am I?"

"You had a fall. I just bought a drink," Jaeger informed him, "You carry on with your day, alright?"

"Oh, okay. Uh, thanks."

The hunter nodded and turned to leave the store, vanishing into the deceased agent's cruiser, backing up and pulling out into the road.

* * *

_A little while later, back at the Parkers' apartment…_

While he continued to analyze everything in the apartment, the mysterious stranger found a note that someone scribbled on at the table that he had found himself on. He picked it up to read it.

_**Hi! Sorry, had to run out for work! There is food and water and stuff in the fridge! Please don't touch my gadgets! My brother has clothes in the locker in the corner that might fit you! I'll be back soon!**_

_**May**_

This stumped him. Why did she go out of her way to help him? He remembered the concussive blow her brother landed on him that caused him to black out. Did he disagree with him being there?

His mind raced a thousand different directions as he tried to figure out what was going on, where he was, and what the date was.

Poking around the apartment, he found a bathroom and a clean set of towels inside the closet within it. He knew he stunk. He didn't know how long he had lingered in the void, but he knew he needed a shower.

He turned on the water and undressed his tactical pants and boots. Inside the shower, he studied his petrified forearms. It had felt like forever since he had last seen them. He was so used to his bracers that were once symbols of an imprisonment long past. Now, he wasn't sure what to feel.

As the hot water hit him, he thought of his beloved. The woman in his vision. He wondered where she was now. If she had survived the final events of the war that nearly destroyed the world. He wasn't sure how long it had been. But… if she was still alive… maybe there was still a chance with him.

He finished up and dried off with the towel. There was a few crew shirts and a black collared jacket along with black jeans. It fit him just right, except for it being a little tight in some areas. He quickly realized that his mask was missing. The mask that had accompanied him for so long that it had become part of his permanent iconography. Although, it wasn't much use to have it anymore, as he had lost his eye in the battle.

He sat in their living room, staring at the gigantic television that seemed so technologically advanced that he was afraid of turning it on and damaging something. With all the technology, he scorned the fact he couldn't find the date anywhere. He glanced outside and saw a city he knew yet felt all so unfamiliar at how advanced it had become.

There were cars that still drove on the road, but flying drones everywhere delivering items. He could only imagine how different things like phones were and such.

Suddenly, he heard the front door's handle jiggle. It opened to reveal May come walking right through. She gasped when she saw him standing in the living room.

"Oh my! You're awake! I didn't expect you to be up yet!"

He wasn't sure what to say, he simply expressed confusion. She seemed excited, anxious, and a little scared all at the same time.

"I'm sorry, I was wearing a mask when you last saw me! I'm May. May Parker!"

She approached him and extended her hand out, but he hesitated to shake it. He simply kept analyzing her.

She looked so much like her father. Her eyes were the brightest brown he had ever seen, having been mixed with Ava's brown eyes and Peter's blue eyes.

Finally, he reached out and shook her hand.

In that instant, he collected some her memories, glimpsing her life as Spider-Girl and seeing her rise as the new web-slinging protector of New York City.

"W-Why did you rescue me?" he asked.

"Um… I'm not really sure why. My brother thinks you're a fugitive from SHIELD, but you seemed hurt… I guess? I didn't want to leave you to the wolves. I wanted to help you."

He expressed indifference.

"You shouldn't have done that."

"Why not? I'm Spider-Girl. I'm _supposed _to help people, silly!"

"Spider-Girl," he repeated, as though emphasizing it in his mind, "…What date is it?"

"Date? Um… I think it's November 5. It's a Sunday."

"What year?" he anxiously asked.

"2045. Why?"

His heart dropped a million stories. He looked over at the floor and collapsed back into the couch.

"It's been… it's been that long?" he asked in a soft whisper.

She sat down next to him in the loveseat perpendicular to him.

"What do you mean it's been that long?"

His eye slowly glistened, and a tear slid down his scarred cheek.

"I've been lost in the void for… for… **29 years**."

"W-What?"

He broke down and silently wept into his hands.

"Hey, it's… it's alright," she tried to assure him, "It's alright."

After a few minutes, he finally came to and wiped his face. He cleared his throat and looked over at May.

"Thank you for… for rescuing me."

"You're welcome," she kindly answered, "Um… what do I call you? Do you have a name?"

"I did. A long time ago it would seem," he sighed, "I went by many names, but… I feel as though those names have been put to rest. There's no use anymore to continue using them."

"Well, that's okay! Do you have a new name you want to be called by?"

He took a moment to answer. There was a lot of considerations. He didn't want to go by the name he originally went by. That man was long dead for several decades now. At the same time, he didn't want to go by the alias he had gone by before he was lost in the void. He was a ghost of what once was.

A ghost. That's it.

"Ghost."

"Ghost?" she repeated.

"You may call me **Ghost**, if you must."

"Super cool! I like that! Well, Ghost, what's next now? I'm not going to pry, I'm not going to force you to do anything you don't want to do."

"I… I don't know," he sighed, "I…"

Suddenly, the front door opened again, this time it was Hector. His expression quickly grew grim once he saw Ghost sitting on the couch.

"What's he doing outside of the lab, May?" he sternly asked, "You, get up."

Ghost glanced over at May and obeyed, getting up off the couch.

"What are you doing, Hector? Can't you see I'm trying to talk to him?!"

Hector ignored her, walking past her and pulling Ghost by his collar and shoving him towards the door.

"Get out. Now."

"I don't mean any harm," Ghost tried to assure him.

"I don't care what you mean, pal. Get the hell out of my apartment."

"Hector, stop!"

May pulled on her brother's arm, but he shook her off, keeping his gaze fixed on Ghost.

"You either get the hell out or I put you in a wheelchair, asshole. I'm not telling you again. **Get out**."

"Hector, you better stop!" May repeated herself, but Ghost raised his hand.

"It's alright, May. It's alright."

"No, it's not!"

Ghost took a better look at her brother. He took up after his mother. A shade or two darker than his sister and his mother's temperament.

"I'll be going," Ghost told them, "Thank you for… for helping me."

He turned around and opened the door, walking through it. Hector slammed the door shut behind him.

"Hector, what the hell?! Why did you do that?!" May argued with him.

"No, May, I'm not arguing this with you! I told you that once he was healed, he's out of here. Guess what? He looked pretty healthy to me!"

"He wasn't doing anything wrong!"

"Oh yeah? Guess what I did today while you were trying to patch him up? I looked into the SHIELD reports as to why they were trying to call us in the first place over there. You want to know what I found? **Something **entered the planet's atmosphere out of some black hole and dropped some alien entity off here. Whatever he is, he's not from this world and that's trouble we don't need!"

"That's not true! He's human!"

"Look, I did you a favor by not calling SHIELD and kicking him out. He won't last long in the city anyway. They'll find him with that ugly mug of his and everything will go back to normal."

She began to tear up.

"Why are you acting this way? He's done nothing wrong! We're supposed to help people!"

"You've got a lot to learn about being a real superhero, May! Put a band-aid on that bleeding heart of yours before you end up like mom and dad too!"

With that, her brother shut her out and marched to his room, leaving her crying in the living room.


	6. Manhattan 2045

_**Manhattan 2045**_

* * *

_That evening…_

After being forced out of the apartment, Ghost managed to find his way back down to the street. He was immediately bitten by the cold air that circulated through the city around this time of the year. The outfit that he had retrieved from the Parkers wasn't enough to sustain him from the cold, but he wanted to avoid gaining too much attention.

It started to flurry small flakes of snow by the time he found an old and tattered hoodie in a nearby dumpster in the alleyway across the street. He ignored it as much as he could, opting to stay on the backstreets to try and find a cozy place to rest for the night.

As he passed by the pedestrians, he realized that he didn't really need to do much to disguise himself. Everyone was too busy on their holo-tools attached to their forearms to really pay attention to whatever or whoever was around them. As he passed by different restaurants, he noticed all the same inside. Nobody was really speaking to each other. Everyone was so immersed in their social media that face-to-face communication was so limited.

There were technology outlets where holographic representations of celebrities and other icons were promoting a different tool, game station, or holovision set.

"Hi, I'm Morgan Stark, CEO and Chairwoman of Stark Industries," a holo-ad greeted, "Take a look at our new state-of-the-art auto-piloting control systems that can be fully integrated into any make and model vehicle. Stop by your local tech outlet today for special finance options."

Morgan Stark? That must be Tony's daughter.

Ghost was still trying to come to accept how much had changed since 2016. He felt so indifferent. As indifferent as when he first felt free years prior to the conflict that sucked him into the void. He couldn't have felt more lost.

Cars zoomed past him at rapid speeds, people didn't bother to give him a second look, and the whole world felt like it had moved on so far from the conflict. It was almost like it had never happened. To him, it felt like it happened yesterday, and innocent people were still dying all around the world.

As he turned the corner into another backstreet, he heard a gruff and croaky voice shout out against the wall of a sidewalk.

"Spare credits for a blind war veteran?" it called out, holding out a rusty tool that looked like a scanner of some sort, "Anything helps, it goes a long way."

He glanced over and saw a grayish bearded man wearing a black blindfold over his eyes. He wore a heavily faded brown Carhartt jacket and a gray moth-eaten wool blanket around him as he sat down with a badly written cardboard sign that seemed to read:

**Blind VeTeran frm ThA War**

**PLZ help.**

Ghost slowly approached him as the old homeless man continued shouting his sales pitch, coughing between. He seemed to sense the specter's presence.

"Oi, spare some credits for a veteran from The War, stranger? Anything helps."

"I would if I had some, friend," Ghost kindly answered, "I'm sorry."

"It's alright."

"Can I ask you a few questions, though?"

"If I can answer, I can answer," he coughed.

"What's your name?"

"Ha. Not much of a question, hombre. What do you want to know my name for?"

"You said you fought in The War. I believe we were both in the same conflict."

"Oh yeah? You don't sound it. The War was decades ago," the homeless man skeptically answered.

"Well, what's your name, then?"

"Hmm… I used to go by a lot of names. Those that knew me best called me **Frank**. **Frank Castle**. If that means anything to you."

Ghost's heart dropped.

"Frank Castle? The Punisher?"

"That stupid moniker? Yeah, the very same."

He knew him.

He knew him better than most.

They both served together back in the early 90s. They both fought together in… in The War. But, he didn't want to upset Frank by telling him he was still alive. For all he knew, Frank believed that his old friend was long dead.

"I see," he bit back on answering, "H-How did you lose your sight?"

He audibly sighed.

"Why are you asking me these questions, man? Don't you have anything better to do than to bother me? I lost my eyes in The War. The hell do you want from me?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend."

"Who… Who are you?" Frank then curiously asked.

Ghost refused to tell him his true identity.

"A fellow veteran," he simply answered.

"Alright."

Frank put his scanner tool away in a old military knapsack and got to his feet. It was then that Ghost realized that Frank's right leg was a bionic leg with the Stark Industries logo engraved on it. It was rusty and looked like it hadn't been maintained in years.

"What unit were you with?" Frank questioned, "Ground forces? Were you with Fury's Resistance? The Wakandan reinforcements? SHIELD? ROGUE?"

"I was with the initial force that landed on Manhattan when we made our initial push to take Central Park."

"Ah, so you _were _there," Frank coughed.

He wobbled around for a moment before glancing back at Ghost.

"Are you homeless too, soldier?"

He didn't expect this question from Frank. He hesitated before answering. _Was _he homeless? Well, Hector kicked him out. So, he supposed that he was.

"I've been without a home for a while now, Frank."

"Ah. Alright, come with me."

He felt around for his knapsack and picked it up. Underneath of it, a wooden stick was revealed. Frank picked it up and began using it as a tool to feel the area in front of him to help guide his way.

"Where are we going, Frank?"

"Home."

"Home?"

"Aye. Us veterans have been forgotten by time. There's a small area near the waterfront where we live. We help each other survive."

"I don't want to be intrusive," Ghost told him, "I can find somewhere else to stay."

"You ain't intrusive, soldier," Frank assured him, "You may have been forgotten, but us vets stick together."

* * *

_Meanwhile…_

_On-board The Liberator…_

Director Coulson poured over all the evidence SHIELD collected over The Visitor's suit as well as the cosmic traces left behind. The Director of SWORD reported that they couldn't identify the origins of the black hole and that no alien entity in the galaxy has so far claimed responsibility over The Visitor, but Coulson had long ruled that out of the equation. Whoever this was, they had to be human. There was no other way they could've fit into an Iron Man suit.

He sighed in defeat when he couldn't figure it out. He glanced over at a wall in the office that had a picture of the previous directors of the organization.

Director Fury. Director Hill.

"If only you two were still around," he lamented to himself, "You two would've been able to figure this out a lot faster than me."

In his nostalgia, he opened up the extranet and began looking through old pictures from The War and after. It had taken the planet a little over a decade to even remotely recover from the event. So many people perished fighting for their homes. Those who survived had the challenge of rebuilding society. They were slowly dying off, though.

With the help of Tony's daughter, Stark Industries was able to fast-track the reconstruction period. What would've taken half a century took a few years across the globe. After President Xavier finished his unprecedented four terms after the war, there was popular support for Morgan to step up and take the mantle. But she didn't want it. She wanted to do the work her father left unfinished.

He found pictures of Parker's team. He chuckled when he saw the early pictures of them. He remembered the time him and his newfound team went to Latveria to subdue SHIELD's #1 wanted criminal: Doctor Doom, only to bring back a Doombot that nearly destroyed the city. Those memories seemed like a lifetime ago. As though it happened to other people.

He flipped through the pictures and saw **Luke Cage **and **Danny Rand **flexing as Power Man and Iron Fist respectively. He was glad those two were still around. From what he remembered, Luke owned a barber shop in Harlem and Danny was heading up his company around the world. It had been years since he last saw them.

Of course, there was also **Sam Alexander**, Nova. That goof. He was a troublemaker when he first met him, but he grew into one of the galaxy's best defenders. He's the current leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy, who helped a lot during The War. He knew he kept in close touch with the Parker kids.

He then found a picture of **Peter Parker **and **Ava Ayala**, Spider-Man and White Tiger. The two lovebirds. He remembered when she had the most unfavorable opinion of the webslinger, before it blossomed into love. In the picture, Peter was kissing Ava with his mask halfway rolled up his face. Hers was halfway lifted too and she was smiling. They were the dynamic power duo that led the New Avengers for so many years.

…before they were killed.

Their kids, May and Hector, took up their parents' mantles so well. He tried to watch over them as best he could when they passed away in their adolescence. Nova happily took up that responsibility for a time, before Harry and Mary Jane Osborn became their legal guardians shortly before they turned 18.

He stopped looking through the pictures. It pained his old heart to see faces he wished he could see in person again.

Before he finished, one of the linked photos on the net was of **him**.

The Hero of The War.

The man who sacrificed his life to save them all from extinction.

The white masked and black hooded mutate stared back at the viewer with his team behind him.

They never did recover his body from space. Maybe he disintegrated in the atmosphere upon reentry. He wasn't sure.

He wondered if perhaps he was still floating out there in space, somewhere. Lost. Alone.

In his heart, he prayed he had perished.

He knew he carried a terrible burden. If he was still alive somewhere now, it would kill him to know so much time had passed and so much had changed.

* * *

_Back in Manhattan…_

May suited up after arguing with Hector for half the evening and web-swung around the city searching for Ghost. She hacked into the NYPD surveillance database to see if she could find him, but no dice. Nothing was recording in the streets he embarked on after he left the apartment.

She searched desperately but found nothing. It was getting cold too and the thermal regulator in her suit was busted from a fight with the **Vulturess**. She returned back to her apartment after several hours of searching, hoping for a better find in the morning.

"Stay warm tonight, Ghost," she said to herself, "I'll find you yet."

* * *

**a/n: Thanks for reading so far everyone :D Please let me know if there's anything I can improve on. I just commissioned an artist to help me get a good picture for this story too! Super stoked for that! Also, don't forget, if you don't want to leave a review, I have a voting poll on my profile to help me gauge the direction of the story! Much thanx! **

**\- PG**


	7. The Forgotten

_**The Forgotten**_

* * *

_Later that night…_

_Near the edge of the Hudson River…_

Frank guided Ghost to a small landing on the edge of the water. It looked oddly familiar and out of place all at the same time. It was a small strip right at the edge of Manhattan and it dipped into the water as though it were a beach. But the sand was blackish grey, with debris scattered everywhere. It appeared as though it was the remains from The War.

As they approached it, Ghost could make out several makeshift tents and cardboard structures in the middle of the debris. Fires were lit around the homeless campsite, where several other individuals crowded around for warmth.

"Welcome to Camp Fury, soldier," Frank cheerily grunted, "It's where the forgotten veterans congregate."

"Camp Fury? Wasn't that the forward operations base we set up when we made our initial landing on Manhattan in the final battle?"

"The very same. After The War ended, they left the camp up to help reconstruct society. Well, as society got back on its feet, Camp Fury remained. It's all we got left."

As the two of them approached, some of the other homeless veterans glanced over at them. Some of them were missing arms, legs, eyes and whole sections of their face. They were all bundled up as best they could be, with some wearing old SHIELD, ROGUE, or military uniforms from The War era. Some were elderly and some were middle-aged.

"Here," Frank beckoned, "I've got room for you over here."

"Didja bring any credits for the pot, Frank?" one of the vets called out, "Mike came up short from today's catch."

"I've got enough to cover Mike's bit, Abdul. Don't you worry."

He guided Ghost over to a small corner of the campsite near the edge of the water. It was a foxhole, where he laid out large sections of cardboard and blankets overtop to create some sort of cover from the elements. He connected a tube to a TV satellite dish and made a hole in the middle of the dish to act as a metal chimney for the fire that he was burning inside the foxhole.

A stack of newspapers and blankets was directly next to it. Ghost assumed it was Frank's bed. Frank temporarily left Ghost inside the foxhole and quickly came back with a stack of blankets and a stained green pillow.

"Here. It's our last ones, so make it last."

Ghost graciously accepted it.

"You can make yourself some room on the other side of this here fire while we find you a spot for you to make your dwelling in tomorrow."

Ghost wasn't sure what to say other than thanks. It humbled him to see his old friend, who was once such a violent and extreme individual, go out of his way to help him. The War must've really affected him. Although fully blind, Frank had incredible mobility around the camp. He must've been here for such a long time for him to have memorized every step so well.

"Now, come on. Let's get you a bowl to eat," Frank urged him.

"A bowl?"

"Yeah, can, bowl, it ain't much, but it's food. Our credits we collect around the city pitch in for food for the entire camp."

They walked over to the middle of the camp where the rest of the denizens were gathered around a larger fire and slurped a soup from their rusty spoons. One of the other veterans handed Frank two warm cans and two spoons. He then handed Ghost one of each. They walked over to the fire and sat down on one of the piles of debris they had fixed into a place to sit.

"Hear ye, hear ye," Frank hoarsely called out to them, "We've a new addition to our camp, just met this feller this evenin', so pay your respects to him."

The other veterans greeted him in murmurs as they tried to keep their mouths covered in the cold.

"What do we call you?" one of the veterans asked.

"Oh yeah, I never did catch your name, soldier," Frank agreed, "What do we call you?"

Ghost hesitated for a moment. Again, he didn't want his true identity exposed for them all to hear. He quickly thought of something.

"You can go by my callsign. **Ghost**."

"_Ghost?_ Isn't that the callsign that the Hero of The War went by?"

"No, Carl," Frank sighed, "He went by somethin' similar, but it wasn't that."

"What was it anyway?"

"Well," Ghost quickly interrupted, "I just wanted to say thank you all for taking me in here. I wasn't sure what I was going to do this evening. The people that had rescu… that I was staying with kicked me out."

"Bastards," one vet grunted, "Ungrateful bastards kicking a veteran out into the street. At least you're here with your kin, Ghost."

This was met with agreements from the others.

"If you all don't mind me asking… What happened to the veterans of The War? Shouldn't you all be considered heroes? I mean… shouldn't **we **be considered heroes?"

Some of the veterans laughed.

"Didja just get to this year, Ghost?" Frank questioned, "We vets have been forgotten for decades now by the new government that was put in place after The War."

"What do you mean?"

"If you wasn't a super or a mutant of some kind, you was put in the back of the line for health and mental benefits," one veteran noted, "Some of us lost all our limbs and the new government still said we didn't rate immediate care."

"That's… terrible."

"We waited for our turn to come up so that we could get the help we needed," Frank explained, "But, by then, the government shifted their focus on more important matters, like infrastructure and advancing technologies."

"All the money that was supposed to go to us went to that," an elderly female veteran lamented, "…and that's when our brothers and sisters that fought alongside us started offing themselves like no tomorrow."

"They didn't even erect a memorial site for us," Frank continued, "Those that killed themselves were simply cremated and their ashes thrown into the river."

"That's horrible," Ghost frustratingly pointed out, "H-How could they do this to us?"

"Not like nobody tried to do something," another vet pointed out, "That feller from SHIELD, Director Coulson I think, he tried to get SHIELD to pay for us to have a home, but the new government denied him the ability to do it."

"So, those that didn't kill themselves ended up in camps like these, Ghost," Frank concluded, "We take care of each other as best we can."

Ghost looked around the campsite, seeing so many old faces of those that experienced some of the harshest and nightmarish battles in the history of mankind. They were dwindling. And nobody cared to help them.

"You better finish that can, Ghost," the veteran that distributed the food called out, "It gets cold quicker than anything else this time of year. Slurp it up while it's hot."

Ghost did so, tasting the somewhat distasteful tomato soup.

"So, you said they never erected a memorial of some sort?" Ghost asked.

"They did," Frank corrected, "It was just for the supers who died in The War, though. There's a monument with a statue of The Hero of The War in the middle of Central Park. People visit it often."

"They sure do, it's a good place for credits."

"I'd like to visit it, if possible," Ghost requested.

"Sure," Frank grunted, "Abdul, can I take up that spot for credit collection tomorrow? I'll take our greenhorn here and show him the ropes."

"Sure thing, Frank."

Ghost continued drinking his soup while the others told stories about their time in The War and after. Some of them recounted stories of their lives before and how much they missed their families that were killed during the fighting. It broke Ghost's heart to see these men and women, who fought bravely for Earth, forgotten by time, much like him.

When they spoke, they spoke as though they were still in those moments, reliving it with their words. Ghost realized then the true reason of why these lost souls decided not to kill themselves along with the many others that did so.

They chose to live in order to remember.

It was their memories that anchored them to life.

They didn't want to forget them.

Seeing this made Ghost remember his own memories, including the memory of him and his beloved. He remembered her smile. He remembered her laugh. They were so clear to him. It felt like yesterday since they first made love that night before the final battle. It made him feel so alive.

He missed her.

* * *

_That following morning…_

_At the Parker apartment…_

May got up earlier than usual and called out of work due to "illness" and readied up her Spider-Girl suit. As she was filling up her web-shooters, she was surprised by her brother, who woke up when he heard her about.

"Don't tell me you're going to go looking for that freak, May," he irritably greeted her.

"Good morning to you too, brother."

"This is ridiculous. There are over a thousand people like him around the city, all with their own problems, and you choose to help _him? _May, this man's a fugitive. He's not of this world! Can't you see he's a threat?!"

"I'm done arguing with you about this, Hector," she firmly answered, "If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but I can't help this feeling that I _need _to help him. Dad _never _judged anyone, no matter where they were from, no matter what color they were. He never even faulted his biggest villains for being who they were. He _always _wanted to help them."

"Yeah? And look where that got him and mom into? It got them **killed**, May!"

She instantly slapped him across the face after saying those words.

"Don't talk about mom and dad that way, Hector! I swear on their lives I'll web you onto the ceiling and keep you there all day if I've got to!"

He rubbed his cheek for a brief second before returning his attention to her.

"Fine," he simply said, "Go, then. Look for him, do what you want, but he's not allowed back here."

"I'll find a place for him."

She jumped up to the ceiling where a skylight window was propped open for her to slip through.

"Oh, and May?"

"What?"

"Don't forget that you're Spider-Girl too. There are actual people in this city that need help too besides freaks like him."

She ignored him.

* * *

_Meanwhile, in the middle of Times Square…_

While still disguised as a SHIELD agent, **Jaeger **pulled up to a curb in the middle of Times Square. He parked it and got out to examine his environment. He looked through his holo-tool to detect the cosmic energy signature that his target left behind and used a chronological frequency detector to find the coordinates of where he was last located.

There was a strong indicator in the district of the city called Soho. That was where he needed to search first.


End file.
